First, even if I get an ad on my system (a rare event) there is no cookie accepted. I agree that MOST cookies are harmless. but rather than risk a harmful one I block all but a very few.

These companies were added to Ad-Awares' ref file for a reason; consumer complaints, court rulings, and the like.

I agree with you as well; however, the history of companies like fastclick, doubleclick, servedby...ect demonstrate a complete disregard for end users. Most of them have gone to full damage control mode in an attempt to save reputations (and more importantly revenue), but that does nothing to restore my trust in them.

I use a HOSTS file with 13,654 servers as of this writing, Opera, with pop-up's off and all but 10 servers in the "blocked cookies" list (even then Opera whacks em on exit), and zone alarm. I have these settings because I have been back-doored by companies like this in the past.

Changing privacy policies and data collection practices AFTER getting caught infecting a system does not restore my trust in them.

I do believe the statement about "no spyware ever" and don't consider the attempted fastclick intrusion to be a violation of this.
The fact that I believe does not imply blind trust tho.

I like Xolox and the features (or actually the LACK of features), and would even be willing to purchase an off the shelf copy (no illusions of that being availible). But, there are to many other choices out there (and I'm not just talking about P2P apps), to put up with what some of the P2P developers try to pull.